Nov 30 - Slideshows, Screencasting and Digital Storytelling

I had a quick read through this week's explore and adventure and contemplated cheating just a little as I've already used a few of the resources mentioned (mostly slideshare), but then I decided I'd give it all a proper run and see what else I could learn along the way. So I guess this week's adventure may have to wait until I've a little more time up my sleeve to play around.

November 23 - Nings - part 2

Adventure

Library 2.0 - Okay, I updated my profile by adding an image of myself and my 3 children (even though Luc's face is cut in half) from when we were in my office mucking around with the webcam. I'm rather fond of my old picture (of my water dragon, Dart) but it's also good to shake things up a little. I've joined the NSW Public Libraries group and Training 2.0 group and grabbed the ning badge while I was at it.

Of all the off-the-wall online communities I've joined along the way, most have been ning communities (not saying that the ones explored as part of Learning 2.1 are off-the-wall) and I've always enjoyed their sense of sharing. Oddly I have generally found ning communities to be the most active (compared to wikis, blogs, etc) which is why I've explored so many of them I guess and had fun with all the odd-ball ones.

It's great to have had the chance to revisist them and explore a little further.

November 23 - Nings

I saw the headline for this and thought "yay! finally something on nings!" and then of course I didn't get anywhere near it for over a week!!

Explore:
Mosman Readers - What did I like? I liked the sense of immediacy, that something is always happening and that the posts come not only from library staff but from library patrons and guest bloggers. It engenders a real feeling of action - I want to be at Mosman Library 'cause stuff is happening there! Did I find this ning useful? For RA purposes yes because it pointed me in places I may not have thought of going. As a library patron I got excited about some books I just might read based on some of the reviews I read. As a parent there are piles of activities I'm sure my kids would enjoy happening at Mosman these school hols. As a colleague I was intrigued by the concept of unlimited loans during the holiday period and wondering just how I could sell that to our library (it may be easier than I think). The community tabs (Forum, NextReads, BookClubs, etc) foster activity and involvement. It's a great ning.
Museum 3.0 - What did I like? I like the concept - "what will the museum of the future be like?". I like the idea that I could participate in this discussion and perhaps have a small role in shaping the future of something as grand as a museum - and if a museum then why not the future of Libraries? The bits I like best are the Forum and Events tabs, mainly for their content. Did I find this ning useful? Mmmmm, if this was an area of interest / concern for me, then yes. But as it's not what I got out of this ning was more the concept and some of the groups/events. I see my own disreguard for this ning based more on geographical isolation than content - we aren't exactly hemmed in by museums in this neck of the woods so my opportunities for exploring them and enjoying them and wanting to be involved in them is limited. But for someone who does have that level of involvement I see a ning community like Museum 3.0 to be extremely rewarding and useful.
Bibliotheek 2.0 - okay, aside from the fact that this ning is in German (at least I get to start the day laughing over this one) ...... What did I like? I like the simplicity of this site and the beautiful photos which show hands on activities for patrons, visitors and staff. What did I get from this site? The idea that even if I don't understand the language I can still garner the sense of something and be involved in that community.
Library 2.0 - I've been a member of this ning for a very long time (okay since its inception). I've linked this ning to my google reader account to keep on top of posts etc. It's been great for exploring 2.0 and heaps of fun meeting others out there.

Nov 16 - Evaluation

For those of us who are responsible for compiling PLEG data the whole point of this week's tasks is fairly obvious - statistics tell a story all their own which provides necessary background material (and often justification) to various projects, etc.
I count myself lucky, I guess, in that I feel comfortable with this scenario - I've used Survey Monkey to create evaluation forms for training I've presented to library staff, I've replied to other surveys which have been created using Survey Monkey, I've analysed Google Analytics data and been impressed with the picture it provides and the ease of use, I've gotten to the point where it's second nature to demand some sort of evaluation tool for every online service we provide. I use Google Alerts.
This is something of an odd week for me then in regards to some of the tasks we're being asked to complete - mmm, done that one, got that one, have two of those...... I like that though - makes me feel like I'm on the right track and that I have realised and accepted the importance, the cleverness, of evaluation tools - even on my blog.

I suppose I also like the idea that whilst I may not be learning anything terribly "new" to me and have very little to complete in regards to any of the suggested activities, there is still that sense of validation in my attitude to evaluation and the way I already use it within my work. This week has managed to make me feel good about me - thankyou.

Nov 9 - Delicious

I found this week's focus on Delicious to be really helpful. I've explored Delicious a whole lot more as a result, linked it to my Twitter account, and generally had fun.
I'd really like to find tags and link all bookmarks using those particular tags to my Delicious account rather than find the url and then link them but it may just be the way I was approaching things today (being Friday).

I already had a rather simple tag cloud on my blog but now I've put the tagroll and linkroll and placed them all together under my tweets to see how they look. Once I decide which one I like best I may delete the others but in the meantime my blog is getting pretty crowded there along the side.

The instructions for the various activities this week were really straightforward and easy to follow - especially for someone who, though I've used Delicious a little bit, is not a regular user.

Wonder what we're up for next week? Can't wait!!

Nov 2 - Twitter - explore

Played around with searching for 'library', 'librarian' and 'libraries' in Twitter - found 'librarian' to be the more interesting set of results (quite enjoyed the "effing librarian" and his rant about the future of libraries, am now considering buying a cafepress shirt with the words "effing right I'm a Librarian" printed across the front but not too sure I should wear it in front of my children). Curious to note that the "Wine Library' scored high up in the list in the "library" search. Generally found the 'library' and 'libraries' searches provided different results but also somewhat "boring" results - all had images (mostly logos) but there was little to inspire me to click on any of the entries - perhaps that's something libraries need to consider when they have Twitter accounts : how we look to the outside world, what will make someone new come be our friend and follow us??

Nov 2 - Twitter - discover

Yep, I skipped Explore and have gone straight for Discover (I'll get back to 'explore' a little later).
1. have had a Twitter account for a while - but it was fun to update my profile settings and change a few details about myself and also the background (bit of a theme at the moment). Oh yeah, I added my blog url in too.
2. agree that tweeting at 140 words or less can be a challenge but have found I can overcome the challenge by breaking down what I want to say into short chunks and do a couple of posts all at once. I enjoy the challenge of being concise though and admit to being a non-abbreviating poster too - perhaps once I started abbreviating I'll find it easier
3. now following a few people - Chrystie Hill, Ellen, ALIA, etc.
4. used the '#nswlearning2.1" tag into a post but noted that Twitter didn't seem to like the dot between the 2 and the 1 - I can search for the full tag but it doesn't hyperlink well from within the post itself - something to remember for future tweet tagging
5. linked my flickr account to Twitter - connectivity plus!

may go and explore now

Oct 20 - blog renewal

Explore
How much have I blogged since Learning 2.0? - not a lot of contribution to my own blogs but certainly a fair bit of contribution to others', including wikis, nings, etc
What do I like about blogging? - the immedicay, the colour & vibrancy, the reflection of myself
Have I found other blogs to read? - oh yeah, heaps. Some I follow, others I check in on every now and then. I have set up various rss feeds but I find I don't use that so often anymore, rather I hit on things on my way past and file them away for later
Do I comment on others' blogs? - yes and no. It really depends on the writer and the topic. Sometimes the best comment is silence.

Adventure
Okay, I found a 3rd party template to use. Tried one site but it wasn't easy, flicked through another, decided on Pyzam - love the images but found the manipulation of html a bit of a headache - I didn't want to lose all the widgets I had already created so I had to save my first template's html somewhere else and then work out where in the new lot of html to insert my widgets back in - and make it work. Took me a while but I got there in the end - thank goodness for the 'preview' button and 'clear edits'. I love the available images from Pyzam but had difficulty getting rid of unwanted text - in hindsight probably should not have done the editing in html at all as I'm hardly html savvy.

Still - does it look good to you??

I have to admit though that rejuvenating my blog has given me cause to continue to rejuvenate myself with the 2.1 experience.

Learning 2.1 - back in the hot seat.

Well, well, well. Here we are again. It's great to see a new edition of the Learning 2.0 program begin and I'm quite excited about exploring Learning 2.1 - should be fun. Thanks and congratulations to Mylee & Ellen for pushing forward with this and for continuing to expose and explore the 2.? world.

I've completed the survey and noted the few areas i'm still a 'new user' so I'll try to make the effort to give those areas a bit more of a go when possible. Looking forward to it.

My contribution today (staff meeting in 6 minutes) is a new look for my blog ...... okay, I'm not too sure how long the pink is going to last but it's the least I can do for pink ribbon day yesterday (aside from the cupcakes and yummies we ate).

The time and place of social networking in our lives

Over the last few weeks, if not months, I've struggled with finding time to get all that needs to be done at work (and home too I guess) done. These last 2 weeks I've found time from somehwere and it's been great to have that sense of achievement - of being able to contribute where I'd like to be contributing. Though I do sense the fog closing in soon.
The oft' cried complaint is that we simply have no time for things - we're busy getting the job done, using loads of social networking tools and other technologies to enhance our work flows and processes and yet we find that there's still more to do each day. Yesterday I found myslef scrambling to accept that 5 o'clock had come round, I simply wasn't ready for it - still so much left to do and the day had gone (still trying to work out where it went - think it may have gone fishing with the rest of my family out on the river.....). In this current clime we're being asked to do more with less, and less. New technologies help us achieve these results but we still need the time to get used to how they operate, else we look foolish (or worse). By taking the time out to write this blog post I delay getting another task completed. By attending an all-day meeting tomorrow I delay getting even more stuff done, yet I need to go to the meeting in order to achieve other outcomes. Just as I need to keep contributing to my blog in order to restore my skills and abilities. The benefit is there, it'll just take a little while to filter through as a benefit.

Perhaps that's what we forget most when spending precious moments using social networking tools, contributing to blogs and wikis and nings and so on - there is a benefit to this activity, it isn't necessarily immediate and whilst it may take a little while for that benefit to filter through, the act of contributing and collaborating with others on the journey is certainly felt and appreciated.
I look back and see that it's over 12 months since I last wrote in this space and yet here I am - I have written in other spaces and explored other avenues but it's certainly rewarding to come back and look over my journey and know it's been a worthwhile one.